Chamber, town sign Carnegie Centre lease

GRAVENHURST - Not since the Gravenhurst Public Library moved out from its walls about 13 years ago has there been so much buzz around the Terence Haight Carnegie Centre.
The historic main street building beside the town’s Opera House is now getting some much-needed TLC and fairly major improvements to make the facility compliant with the accessibility laws coming into play for 2014. Mayor Paisley Donaldson said that will include such things as fixing up the front entrance so those in wheelchairs or with mobility devices can access both the main level, and the installation of an elevator to ensure access to the basement area.
“I can’t wait to see the final results,” she said. “It’s going to be great to help bring that building back up to snuff and the traffic it should generate in the downtown core.”
While the approximately $660,000 in accessibility improvements were required regardless, the big news from the mayor’s standpoint is that the municipality and the Gravenhurst Chamber of Commerce have come to a 20-year lease agreement that will see the organization take over the Carnegie centre later this fall.
“I think it’s going to be a very good move for the town and the chamber,” Donaldson said. “We now have a good, long-term deal in place for an asset that we haven’t really been using for many years.”
The facility has essentially been vacant since the library moved to its new home around the corner, serving shortly as a host to a daycare operation some years ago and the downtown revitalization project co-ordinator’s office in early 2012. Once the renovations are complete, scheduled for early fall, 2013, the chamber and the various services it provides through their current location on Muskoka Road North, near the intersection with Winewood Street, will move to the downtown core. Chamber general manager Danielle Millar said she and her fellow staff are “all pretty excited for the move.”
“We’ll be almost doubling our square-footage,” she explained. “And we’re hoping it will not only meet our needs that we can’t meet in the smaller space, but allow us to expand.”
The chamber operates the town’s Service Ontario branch as well as tourism information services which lead to thousands of customers each year. Millar said the plan is to create a year-round tourism information service rather than the current services that traditionally start in later spring and run through mid-fall. The Carnegie centre boasts about 1,200 square feet on the main floor with a full basement below, meaning it should be a far more comfortable experience for people visiting the location once it’s ready.
“We want to go year-round with our tourism information and hopefully increase the hours of operation so that we’re not helping people in the spring, summer or fall, but also pointing out all the tourism opportunities in Gravenhurst during the winter months,” she said.
The building will also provide plenty of space for the main office workers and a 12-person board room for local organizations to use for meetings.
“By the fall we’ll be right down in the downtown core and hopefully the office will be a much busier place,” Millar said.